Debt-crippled Charter Communications has been consistently ranked at the bottom of the barrel in ISP rankings both here, in the ACSI and elsewhere. There's a general consensus that they're probably one of the worst broadband providers in the business. Yet their stock has risen 275% over the last year notes 24/7 -- compared to 35% for Comcast and 80% for Cablevision, both of whom have, well -- money. As our commenters note, a small move looks huge when you're talking about inexpensive stock.

In a meeting with investors recently, Charter Chairman Paul Allen praised the company's management team, and said VoIP deployments were going well, with the service now available to 7 million homes, up from about 3 million at the beginning of 2006 (8% take rate, says Allen).

Nothing was said about new speeds, considering the company lacks the capital for any footprint-wide upgrades. However, for what's it worth (and that might not be much), an anonymous Charter poster in our forums insists a 16Mbps tier is in testing and could be released in the coming months -- likely only in FiOS areas.